A sustainable financing strategy for SMEs should aim to enhance a low-cost collateral-free supply of loans to SMEs with good track records of repayments to banks. In this paper, we suggest two alternative financing models for SMEs that address certain borrowing constraints of SMEs. First, the model incorporates institutional mechanisms involving the government, banks, and SMEs. The strategy employs a two-pronged approach: (i) the government enhances the supply of loanable funds to banks, and (ii) identifies good SME borrowers through skills development programs and introduces them to banks. This model will reduce default risk and allow banks to offer lower-interest and collateral-free credit to SMEs, thereby improving their access to finance and performance. Second, the model could be extended to accommodate digital finance using a data-driven credit risk score of the borrowers to reduce banks’ default risks and transaction costs with or without government funds. The proposed model could resolve the moral hazard and selection bias problems. Our proposed models are based on a public-private partnership approach and therefore could solve certain borrowing constraints of SMEs. Our empirical results support the model outcomes and therefore are consistent with the predictions of our theoretical models.

This study applied graph theory to conduct an empirical analysis of the evolution of global maritime container shipping networks, mainly focusing on the 1970s. In addition to analyzing the change in overall structures of the networks over the long term (from the 1970s to the present) and midterm (in the 1970s), the authors examined the changes in the container shipping networks before and after the reopening of the Suez Canal in 1975. As a result, it was confirmed that the initial single polar network structure, in which New York and other North American ports were placed at the center, changed to a multipolar structure, finally forming a hub-and-spoke structure. Subsequently, the authors confirmed discontinuous changes in inter-regional density from 1975 to 1976 caused by an increase in the average number of ports of call in 1976, because the recession caused by the first oil crisis in 1973 decreased the maritime container shipping demand, and the reopening of the Suez Canal caused a surplus of containerships. This study would contribute to accumulating empirical knowledge on the vulnerability analysis of the present and future maritime container shipping networks.

Freight rates often differ by the direction of freight transportation. To investigate the determinants of a directional imbalance in freight rates, we show that a deviation between front- and back-haul freight rates depends on both density economies and directional imbalances in transport flows. Using panel data on truck freight transportation in Japan, we find that a 10% increase in the front-haul transport flow relative to back-haul transport flow leads to a 1.3% decrease in the front-haul freight rate relative to back-haul freight rate. This suggests that the negative effect of density economies in front-haul transport flow dominates the positive effects of both density economies in back-haul transport flow and the directional imbalance in transport flows.